Odds & Ends

Dateline: Poland—Michal Kawolski obviously likes his vodka on ice. The 23-year-old resident of Gdansk had to be rescued by coast guards after drifting out to sea on a sheet of ice with a bottle of vodka. Kawolski had apparently been out drinking with friends in the northern port city when he decided to test out the strength of the ice along the shore. “We dared him to do it, and it seemed like a good idea after a few hours of drinking,” one of his buddies told reporters. “There was a loud crack and then he started to float away. We thought it was funny at first, but then he started to scream for help.” As Kawolski was carried out into the Baltic Sea by strong currents, his friends rushed to the nearby coast guard office for help. “He had drifted about a kilometer out to sea by the time we got to him,” said coast guard spokesperson Captain Adam Taflinski. “But we were able to get him to safety.” Kawolski spent the night in a hospital being treated for hypothermia and was later quoted by local media as saying, “Well, I won’t be doing that again.”

Dateline: New York—Border agents in Buffalo stopped an extremely pregnant woman at the Peace Bridge crossing into Canada and helped her give birth to 21 pounds of Ecstasy. Thomas Rusert, a spokesperson for U.S. Customs & Border Protection, told the Buffalo News that 25-year-old Leann Corley of Stone Mountain, Ga., had trouble answering routine questions from agents. Corley was pulled off the commercial bus she was on and physically searched. Turns out her baby bump was actually 34,000 Ecstasy pills stuffed into a special body suit. Corley faces federal charges of importation of a controlled substance with intent to distribute. She will be prosecuted by the U. S. Attorney’s Office.

Dateline: Ohio—A priest who was arrested for driving under the influence pleaded not guilty in Kent Municipal Court after being caught on tape threatening the arresting officers, offering them oral sex and asking if they want him to be their “sexual slave.” This is the third DUI arrest in the area for 35-year-old Father Ignatius Kury. Kury, who is a priest at the Holy Ghost Ukrainian Byzantine Catholic Church in Akron, had a blood alcohol level three times the legal limit when he was arrested. While in a holding cell at the police station in Brimfield Township, Kury was caught on video telling officers, “I’ll pay you whatever you want. What do you want? Want me to give you a blow job? Is that what you want? Do you want me to be a sexual slave?" The Brimfield Township chief of police said the pastor could face additional charges for threatening and propositioning officers. Kury’s attorney, Walter Benson, dismissed the accusations against his client during an interview with FOX-8 News. “It should not be a surprise to anyone that someone who is extremely intoxicated would say or do inappropriate things,” said Benson. During his hearing on March 4, Kury asked the judge for permission to enter a rehabilitation facility in Maryland. Kury has since been relieved of his duties at the parish church.

Dateline: Florida—A former firefighter-paramedic in the St. Lucie County Fire District is being sued for taking a man’s severed foot from an Interstate 95 car crash in 2008. Cynthia Economou admitted she removed the foot belonging to Karl Lambert of Brevard County, who was seriously injured in the Sept. 19 accident. Lambert said the foot was too badly damaged to reattach and she only took it to help train her body-recovery dog. A lawsuit filed earlier this month by Lambert says Economou’s act was “outrageous and went beyond the bounds of decency.” Also, it was “odious and utterly intolerable in a civilized society.” Economou previously pleaded no contest to a charge of second-degree petty theft. County Judge Philip Yacucci sentenced her to six months probation. She quit her job at the fire district soon after the incident. Lambert’s lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.

Dateline: Oregon—Police dispatchers in Multnomah County received two calls on the night of March 7. One was from a 55-year-old homeowner in Portland’s Washington Park neighborhood who returned home from a brief trip to the grocery store and heard an unknown male voice coming from the bathroom. The voice belonged to the other 911 caller, 24-year-old Timothy James Chapek, who had broken into the house and was taking a shower. He called police, worried that the homeowner of the house he had broken into might have a gun. Although she was not armed, the homeowner did have two eager German shepherds with her. According to The Oregonian, officers from Portland Police Bureau’s Central Precinct responded quickly with their own dog. Chapek was arrested without further incident and was booked into Multnomah County Jail on charges of first-degree criminal trespass.